Doug Finke: SEIU draws heat for no real reason

It was a two-fer week for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Doug Finke

It was a two-fer week for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

It endorsed Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias for U.S. Senate. That brought heat on Giannoulias from both Democrats and Republicans because SEIU gave big bucks to Rod Blagojevich. The suggestion was that Giannoulias is somehow tainted because he's accepting the endorsement of a union that (gasp) gave money to Blagojevich.

The endorsement also allowed the Illinois Republican Party to rehash the right-wing's allegations that SEIU and ACORN are practically the same outfit. It then follows that support from SEIU means you pretty much endorse ACORN and its policies.

If that's the way someone wants to view things, that's ok. Let's take a look at the state Board of Elections Web site and see who's gotten financial support from SEIU. Hmmm, the Republican State Senate Campaign Committee got several thousand dollars in 2006 and 2008. Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, got $5,000 in 2008 and her predecessor, Frank Watson of Greenville, got contributions in 2006 and 2008.

The contributions weren't limited to people in leadership. Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, and Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, both have gotten donations from SEIU, as recently as this year for Poe. And everyone in the Springfield area knows what kind of radical, left-wing politicians Poe and Bomke are.

That doesn't begin to touch on all of the people who've gotten money from SEIU. SEIU made lots of contributions to lots of candidates, mostly to Democrats, but also Republicans. If SEIU support makes you damaged goods, so be it. But that's going to be a pretty long list of damaged goods.

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For those of you scoring at home, there are at least 15 people who have indicated they plan to run for lieutenant governor and the number may grow. Hard to imagine 15 people thinking they want a job that was once deemed so boring and meaningless that the holder of it quit.

People have floated a lot of theories about this spate of interest in the job. Not the least supposedly is people seeing Quinn ascend from lieutenant governor to governor and thinking it could happen again. Hopefully, his particular path to the top job won't be duplicated anytime soon.

Still, it points out that as largely useless as the job of lieutenant governor can be, the person holding it can suddenly be given responsibility for running state government. All of which makes you wonder about the political newcomers lining up to run for lieutenant governor. How can you never have held elected office and think the place to start is lieutenant governor? How do you imagine someone like that would fare with the legislative leaders if he had to assume the governorship?

Oh, not to worry. The leaders would surely help out the newcomer.

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Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa, a candidate for state treasurer, has posed one of the critical questions of this still-young campaign season.

"Do I need a haircut?" he asks in a video on his Web site danrutherford.org.

Rutherford explains that a Chicago newspaper columnist referred to him as "an affable downstater with a steel-tinted crew cut." That's a pretty accurate description of both Rutherford and his hair.

However, calling his hairstyle a crew cut seems to have disturbed Rutherford. In his video, Rutherford said he skipped his usual Saturday haircut, letting it grow out a bit. Now he is asking his supporters if he needs a cut.

Two questions. One, why is a fiscal conservative like Rutherford getting a weekly haircut? Isn't some spending restraint in order?

Two, isn't getting or not getting a haircut something a politician should decide based on what he or she thinks is best? Is Rutherford one of those politicians whose positions are based on polling?

Still, his question probably is as meaningful as most of the campaign bilge out there so far.

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Rutherford's site features something you don't normally see on campaign Web sites – recipes.

Under a category called "soups and casseroles" are a number of recipes for soups and casseroles. From a quick scan: The recipes don't look very complicated, many appear like they could be tasty and few if any of them would be selected for a book on cooking light.

Makes the site worth a visit even if you're not voting for Rutherford.